Lazarus Official Trailer (from Cowboy Bebop director Shinichiro Watanabe) | Coming out April 5

Doom85

Doom85

Member



April 5th on Toonami, next day on Max.


Season 2 Reaction GIF by The Office


Been a bit of a wait, but this is looking solid.
 
Will watch it myself as IGN reviews aren't very credible. Zero expectation that it is anywhere near as good as Watanabe's work in his prime though.
 
I mean I'll still give it a watch but nothing with Adult Swim backing ends up well. Have people not learned from Ninja Kamui, the forced FLCL sequels and Uzumaki? Jason Demarco is a fraud.
 
Werewolf Jones said:
I mean I'll still give it a watch but nothing with Adult Swim backing ends up well. Have people not learned from Ninja Kamui, the forced FLCL sequels and Uzumaki? Jason Demarco is a fraud.
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I can't be bothered to rewatch the 30 minute video I saw discussing it, but Uzumaki's production issues likely had nothing to do with Jason or Adult Swim based on the evidence the video discussed about the info that was gathered about the production. It's one thing to not like the guy, but don't automatically assume he's the main cause of any production that goes south just because he's connected to it.
 
Doing a quick Google search reviews seem to range from "meh" to "far from Watanabe's best, but no bad".

Guess I'll still check it out. And the reviews are apparently based on less than half the show so it could get better (though I'd argue the vast majority of anime and manga struggles with sticking the landing....not the beginning)
 
Doom85 said:
I can't be bothered to rewatch the 30 minute video I saw discussing it, but Uzumaki's production issues likely had nothing to do with Jason or Adult Swim based on the evidence the video discussed about the info that was gathered about the production. It's one thing to not like the guy, but don't automatically assume he's the main cause of any production that goes south just because he's connected to it.
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en.wikipedia.org

Sola Digital Arts - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org

Shenmue anime and Rick and Morty anime too... Please see sense Doom.
 
Doom85 said:
You tell me to see sense….by linking to a studio that had nothing to do with the adaptation of Uzumaki, which is the one I specifically questioned you about?

T7u95Tw.gif
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Uzumaki was clearly shifted from one team to another because of project costs managed by Demarco. Time Warner funds Adult Swim. They don't have enough budget to fund a full show. Maybe a 45 minute OVA that could look incredible. 🤷‍♂️
 
To be fair to adult swim, the fact that they've managed to survive and thrive for so long under an extremely volatile WB, is impressive.

Werewolf Jones said:
I mean I'll still give it a watch but nothing with Adult Swim backing ends up well. Have people not learned from Ninja Kamui, the forced FLCL sequels and Uzumaki? Jason Demarco is a fraud.
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These shows are of varying quality though. The main issue with Ninja Kamui, which ended up being a solid show, was it's CGI usage.
 
Watched the first episode. Animation quality isn't great and the action is choppy and the camera work is erratic.

Not shocked.

At least I have Yaiba this season for some real sakuga.
 
I watched the first episode, the English dub is disgusting, and unfortunately since this is only available on Channel 4 here in the UK, we're fucked. I didn't find the first episode all that interesting or entertaining, but the premise is good and could develop into something more satisfying.
 
Love the 1st episode, some good chase scenes. Axel looks just like Spike from Cowboy Bebop. And the music is fire.
 
near said:
I watched the first episode, the English dub is disgusting, and unfortunately since this is only available on Channel 4 here in the UK, we're fucked. I didn't find the first episode all that interesting or entertaining, but the premise is good and could develop into something more satisfying.
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What's wrong with the English Dub?
 
Not sure if this is the halfway point or not with it being 4 episodes in, but I've seriously enjoyed what I've watched so far.

While it isn't an exact beat for beat masterpiece in the way that someone would see Cowboy Bebop, it definitely gives the feeling of an old quality Adult Swim show on multiple accounts.
 
March Climber said:
Not sure if this is the halfway point or not with it being 4 episodes in, but I've seriously enjoyed what I've watched so far.

While it isn't an exact beat for beat masterpiece in the way that someone would see Cowboy Bebop, it definitely gives the feeling of an old quality Adult Swim show on multiple accounts.
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13 episodes it seems
 
I've hated every episode I've watched.

Everything is so on the nose my skin is coming off. Cowboy Bebop's world was very particular about its world building and was a potential future out of reach of our life time with well researched multicultism, every planet had it's own economic state. This show is set 27 years in the future but has problems from 2025. The latest episode was wrote by Dai Sato but mentions Crypto, AI and Diddy Parties.

The latest episode had a Crypto bro actually say "WOMEN DON'T KNOW ANYTHING!"

Also in the opening for the show they always have a monologue about something and said that kids took this drug despite not needed painkillers. There was an underground circuit for it... Why isn't that an episode with the younger main characters focusing on it?

Probably gonna end up Watanabe's worst show by a mile.
 
Five episodes in, and I'm wondering to myself if it's possible for a creator to plagiarize their own work.....this thing wants to appeal to Bebop fans so badly it hurts. Unfortunately it doesn't quite have Bebop's energy or soundtrack quality, and the English dub is surprisingly poor considering Watanabe joints typically have really good ones. Overall, just kind of okay so far.
 
Branded said:
Why are people watching dubbed anime? :goog_what:
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Because the show debuted first in dubbed, and purposefully released episodes dub first, then sub after.

The animators are even doing the thing where the latter sub release has slightly more detail and extra touches in the animation.
 
March Climber said:
Because the show debuted first in dubbed, and purposefully released episodes dub first, then sub after.

The animators are even doing the thing where the latter sub release has slightly more detail and extra touches in the animation.
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I'd rather just wait for the proper version instead of some bastardization of it.
 
Werewolf Jones said:
Whole show is pointless slop. Not worth your time.
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Wait, you kept watching after your last post?

You have to set a 3-rule or something for your entertainment man. 3 episodes if it's a TV show, 3 hours if it's a video game, 3 chapters if it's a book, etc.

If you aren't enjoying something after that 3 then you would just stop and let it go. That way you don't end up hate-watching, hate-playing, or hate-reading. It's a good way to catch yourself so that you can instead spend that time on something else you might enjoy instead.
 
Nocty said:
one of the worst english dubs I have ever came across and that is saying something
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The trailer had me gasping for that Sweet Nihongo speak.
I dislike maybe 90% of dubs out there. I don't care if MC sounds like an old Japanese woman, screaming into the mic. That's what I grew up with.
That aside, I will binge this at some point. It looks better than the cute trash that keeps spilling out.
 
March Climber said:
Wait, you kept watching after your last post?

You have to set a 3-rule or something for your entertainment man. 3 episodes if it's a TV show, 3 hours if it's a video game, 3 chapters if it's a book, etc.

If you aren't enjoying something after that 3 then you would just stop and let it go. That way you don't end up hate-watching, hate-playing, or hate-reading. It's a good way to catch yourself so that you can instead spend that time on something else you might enjoy instead.
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It was the ultimate brain dead easy watch bad dub anime. It wasn't bad or offensive enough for me to drop but it really shouldn't exist.
 
I'm up to episode 7. Episodes 5-7 were a noticeable improvement over the first four. I think the show will likely suffer from its 13 episode length though, as I don't think they'll have the time to develop the whole cast, do the story justice, and feel like a real globe-trotting adventure. In terms of the last part, having double the amount of episodes would help because I think some of these episodes' plots would benefit from being expanded into two-parters. Instead, pretty much every episode starts with them comfortably back at their HQ, which I feel hurts the feel of the global scale of the search.

Like, the cult episode was good and I feel the hacker girl is the one main character to actually get a bit fleshed out so far, but they could have made it a two-parter, actually give hacker girl some flashbacks of her past life at the commune so we can connect more to her, made it more of a mystery (like the outside world's theory is that their "god" is an AI but it's not confirmed, and as the two heroes spend time in the commune they see the higher priest do a few things that seem like unexplainable miracles, but in the end the two heroes discover the AI and it's revealed how the priest pulled off the "miracles"), give her more time to bond with the one girl in the cult who ends up helping them so that moment of her turning away from the cult feels more impactful, etc.

Too much of the show feels rushed and things that should be visually displayed through flashbacks and such are just told instead through quick exposition which is generally less effective in making me care about the characters. I will say I really did like them each at different points in the ocean in episode 7, appreciating the beauty of the natural world and wondering if Skinner is deliberately showing them the journey that he took that shaped his mindset. That's good stuff, but again the show doesn't feel like it has enough time to really explore this fully.

So yeah, in terms of the Watanabe shows I've seen, this is the weakest from what I've seen so far. Cowboy Bebop is a 10, Samurai Champloo and Space Dandy are both a 9, Carole and Tuesday is a 8, but I can only give this a 7 at most so far. The animation is mostly great and the music is pretty good, and I am liking the show a bit more as it goes on, but those first few episodes particularly needed restructuring and such, and ultimately I think this show's 13 episode length will hurt it.
 
Finished...still just kind of okay in the end. There's too much wasted time here for such a short series. What's weird is that the primary narrative goal is made crystal clear very early on, but then the first half of the series is spent on random hijinks that do little to advance it. The second half is mostly focused on the cast's backstories, but at least those episodes are individually more interesting, even if they do little to serve the main storyline. This does make it kind of funny when the Lazarus team leaders are eventually called in by the government to answer the question that the audience is probably wondering themselves: "So what exactly have you guys accomplished this whole time, other than nothing?"
 
Finally finished it and it gave me exactly what I was looking for, a show with that Adult Swim-esque feeling to it.

I do think it had two problems for me:

1) The ending felt a bit quick in a movie-like way of 'we need to connect these threads and wrap this up as quickly as possible because it's the end now' including the slight sequel bait.

2) Axel's english VA, Jack Stansbury, is the wrong guy for the job.

Based on his past works, he is not a bad voice actor, but in this show his voice did not match the direction of what the voice coach wanted him to do. For someone who speaks in a low tone like Axel it requires a voice with a bit more weight behind it, and Jack's didn't have it.

However otherwise, I liked the overall story, the adventure, and the intrigue/mystery presented here along with the ending twist in terms of the doctor's motivation behind what he did. If they decide to make another season they should focus on the backstory of some of the other members. I think we only got a sneak peek at 2 of their pasts. I also like that, in our modern times where shows and movies blatantly spell things out, this time there were unsaid moments that left it up to the viewer to decipher.

I also wanted to point out that both Bonobo and Kamasi Washington did an amazing job with the soundtrack.








Honestly I think Bonobo could have done some bumpers for Adult Swim back in their early days. I saved some of these songs from the show and even looked further into both of their other works.

On the rating scale, I would rate this around Samurai Champloo-level which is around a B+ (with Champloo forever hovering between an A- and B+ for me). They both reach that range in rating for different reasons.
 
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